The Lost Tales: Voices In The Dark

The station prepares to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of The Intestellar Alliance, but Babylon 5 being what it is, things are certain not to go smoothly. Colonel Lochley finds herself seeking the assistance of a priest in order to deal with a demonic possession, and President Sheridan receives an unexpected guest forecasting the destruction of the Earth Alliance in the future if Sheridan doesn't take the life of an innocent Centauri prince.

This was an Anthology Film, meant to be the first part of a series of short films, each following a specific character and each release having a common theme for the stories to follow. Though Voices In The Dark was commercially successful, production of the second part (with Garibaldi and possibly Londo) fell through due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America Strike and ended up being shelved by J. Michael Straczynski due to concerns that the studio would not budget enough money for him to do the Babylon 5 universe justice.

Starring Bruce Boxleitner as President John Sheridan, Tracy Scoggins as Colonel Elizabeth Lochley, and Peter Woodward as Galen.

The film, as presented, is divided into two parts, Over Here, taking place on Babylon 5, and Over There, taking place aboard Sheridan's flagship, the Valen.

The Lost Tales

Colon Cancer: The film as a whole is titled Babylon 5: The Lost Tales: Voices In The Dark. Now consider that each part was made to be its own smaller film and you end up with constructions such as Babylon 5: The Lost Tales: Voices In The Dark: Over Here.

Technology Marches On: A side effect of the original series concluding in 1998, and The Lost Tales being released in 2007, between which the state of the art of computer-generated graphics had moved on considerably. The production company (who also worked on the Battlestar Galactica reboot) presented a low-resolution draft rendering of the CGI models for the film to let him get an idea how things were coming along, and they were at least equal in quality to the best end-product CGI from the original show.

What Could Have Been: Ideas for the series ranged from an already-scripted Garibaldi episode, to themed episodes around the various factions and races, and perhaps one about the Telepath War.

Over Here

Batman Gambit: The villain wants to be exorcised... aboard Babylon 5, in hopes that this will result in him being released into the heavens instead of being returned to his banishment to Earth. Lochley manages to figure out what he's up to, and spoils his plan.

Demonic Possession: Some poor schlub who works on the station as a technician ended up crossing paths with a demon while visiting Earth on leave.

How Unscientific!: Some fans were pretty upset that this fairly hard sci-fi universe suddenly had a literal demon from Hell in it.

Some official source has explained them as energy beings who met up with the First Ones but soon turned out malevolent and were locked away. Essentially, it does in the wizard. Probably for the best.

It doesn't explain why they fear exorcism, however.

Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: It is mentioned that the Catholic Church has been in decline ever since the Earthers gained the means to interstellar travel. If the priest expels the demon immediately, he will have no proof that the possession happened, and the decline will continue. If he allows the demon to stay in possession of his host, it will actually benefit the church as humanity's belief in the supernatural is restored. Of course, to do so would mean to abandon an innocent man that the priest could have helped, dooming his soul.

Over There

Bad Future: Thirty years in the future, the Centauri Republic attacks the Earth Alliance, bombarding Earth from orbit and causing millions of deaths.

Big Apple Sauce: We briefly see a futuristic New York City, complete with a distant shot of Central Park and the obligatory immigrant cab driver.

Cool Starship: The Valen, Sheridan's flagship. For the most part, it is only shown serving as a VIP transport for President Sheridan. We also get a short scene showing various Centauri and Earther warships in battle, including the Warlock destroyers introduced in A Call To Arms and Crusade.

Deadpan Snarker: Sheridan and Galen both, though Galen is much better at it.

Vintari (at the controls of a Starfury): "It feels like I'm flying into battle!"

Sheridan: "Except for that whole 'people shooting at you' part..."

Death from Above: The fate of New York City thirty years in the future, via orbital bombardment.

Distracted by the Sexy: Miss Chambers's camera is a button on her blouse. She claims that her producer had her do that so her interviewees would look at the camera. A lot.

Genre Savvy: Sheridan evidently has had visions projected into his head in his sleep by various entities enough times to know when it's happening, compare to his confused reactions to the first time Galen did this to him in A Call To Arms.

Klingon Promotion: Vintari is third in line for the Throne. He casually mentions that he is targeted for assassination as a result. President Sheridan, dismayed, demands to know who would do such a thing.

Lonely Rich Kid: Prince Vintari, due to his parentage and due to his position in the Royal Court: High enough to be a very tempting target, but not high enough to be in the Emperor's inner circle.

Moral Dilemma: Galen brings Sheridan a vision of the future, and a choice between two undesirable outcomes: He can assassinate the young Prince Vintari, who has done nothing to deserve it, or allow Earth to be devestated in a war launched in thirty years by Emperor Vintari.

Not Hyperbole: Colonel Lochley describes Babylon 5 as a crossroads between Heaven and Hell after the events of Over Here. She then promises to explain everything to President Sheridan after his arrival aboard B5.

Parental Abandonment: Prince Vintari's father died under suspicious circumstances. Rumor has it that Vir Cotto was responsible for his death, but the prince seems to waver between believing it or not.

That father was none other than crazed Emperor Cartagia, who was the mad emperor before Mollari took the throne. Whom Vir and Londo had killed, in case you forgot.

Reality Subtext: Dr. Franklin and G'Kar are said to be exploring beyond the rim of known space, a nod to the fact that their actors had died in the years before this film was made.

Royal Brat: Deconstructed. Vintari is cold and aloof when first introduced, but it is quickly revealed that this is at least partially due to his constantly living in fear of assassination attempts, both due to his being third in line for the throne, and due to his father having made many enemies before dying under suspicious circumstances of a heart attack while still young.

He also reveals to Sheridan that he is very fond of starships, having studied Earther ships in particular. His face lights up like a kid in a candy store when Sheridan invites him along for a flight in a pair of Starfuries.

Space Fighter: The venerable Aurora Starfuries are still in service in 2271, and if Galen's Flash Forward is accurate, they will still be in service in 2301, making for a service record of around 60 years or more since their earliest chronological appearance during the Earth Minbari War in In The Beginning.

It is a very good design, keep in mind that NASA wanted to borrow it for a forklift/heavy loader IN SPACE! With regular upgrades to engines, weapons and computer systems, there is no reason it couldn't keep on flying.

Take a Third Option: Sheridan is told that he must murder the young prince before he has done anything wrong, or else allow the war between the Centauri Empire and the Earth Alliance. Instead, he decides to take the Prince into his own household on Minbar and give him the loving upbringing he was denied on Centauri Prime. Galen freely admits that Sheridan's solution is very workable, even preferable from a moral standpoint. His solution would have been easier though.

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